6 Ways to Cultivate Trust in Your Intuition & Why it’s so Essential

June New Moon Woman’s Circle was beautiful. We explored the theme of intuition; my co-host, Gina Galvez, PA, fellow Nutritional Health Coach, Aromatherapy Consultant and Chakra Energy Healer, guided us through a powerful chakra alignment energy healing, where we released emotional blocks; and we powerfully initiated a new chapter- a new moon cycle in the sign of Cancer.

Under this New Moon cycle in Cancer, here at The Wild Woman Project, we explored a strengthening and reconnection to our intuition– a practice many of us are out of touch with. We sought to get reacquainted to our inner dimension, reestablish trust in our senses and gut feelings, and listen to the whispers of our inner knowing.

Evoking this dimension of guidance is more essential now than ever before, because we’ve got to correct the imbalance which has evolved due to an over-reliance on the Rational Mind to do all of our work, day in and day out. We’ve placed too heavy an emphasis on operating, decision-making, relating, interacting, etc. from a place of mind, while severely underutilizing our primary function of instinct.

Albert Einstein said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” What I find so fascinating is over a century later, this philosophy still applies.

The cultivation of self-centering tools and practices to drop back into intuition, quiet the external stimuli in order to hear our inner voice, and slow down a bit to recenter and reconnect back to Self powerfully creates the space for deeper aligned guidance to emerge. This is essential on so many levels.

Revering Rational Mind as king will send us spiraling into burnout, create greater disconnection within relationship, and to even greater detriment, perpetuate further disconnection to our Self.

Those faithfully devoted to the utilization of Rational Mind might argue that all this intuition talk is fluffy, insubstantial and just plain silly. But placing primary trust back into our intuition to inform decisions and giving it the respect it deserves serves as an essential component for not only practical functionality in this world, but also achieving greater efficiency in interpersonal relationship. We must therefore, disengage reliance on Rational Mind from 99.9% of the time to about 50%, in order to strike the balance we are all seeking to attain these days.

“Mind and intuition are at opposite ends of the same continuum, and our goal is to strike a healthy balance between the two.” – Shakti Gawain, personal development author.

Furthermore, interesting to note is the correlation between our primarily rationally-minded orientation, and our unconscious overconsumption and unobserved engagement in external noise, i.e. mental stimuli, opinions of others, the news, social media, etc. Our current influx of technology, although incredibly beneficial in so many ways, has also stifled our trust in and ability to rely on our senses. As a collective, we seem to be less connected to the natural world and more connected to the technological world.

Personal experience has shown me how overwhelming and inundating outside noise and constant stimulation/information coming in from all different directions can be. When I get swept up and lost in all of the stimuli- text messages, email, phone calls, social media, ebooks, online courses, television, news, etc.- it deeply stifles my sense of center, inner knowing, and aligned discernment for what is essential and what is not. I end up in a “should-state”, feeling like I should be capturing it all, processing everything; and when I’m not able to do so (because who can?!), I feel like I’ve missed something. This causes me to lose sight and feel of what serves me and what doesn’t, and what I need versus what I don’t need.

This imbalance of over-engagement in stimulation and lack of connection to the natural world and intuition, results in my sense of Self feeling drowned out and muffled. What then ultimately happens is I find myself in a pattern of relying more heavily on my Rational Mind to inform decisions rather than what should otherwise be left to intuition.

When we continue in this way for too long, holding Rational Mind on a pedestal and letting the outside noise drown out our inside voice, while leaving intuition and inner knowing left out to dry, we end up stressed out, sick, depressed, addicted to “quick fix feels” (food, alcohol, sex, drugs, consumerism, etc.), in unhealthy, unobserved relationships, unfulfilled in our work, imbalanced in our bodies, lacking presence and stillness, and ultimately in desperate search of joy and peace.

For me, this overconsumption in technology and social media resulted in less time available for solitude, self-reflection, meditation, time in nature, and connection to Self. However, what simultaneously occurred was a stirring from somewhere deep within my being, an undeniable craving which emerged and shouted, “Get in nature. Get to the ocean. Get outside. Get your feet in the grass. Feel the sun.”

The genius of the body and of the natural order of things, in effort to neutralize imbalance and restore harmony, let itself be known, loud and clear.

This is the beautiful phenomenon. We are instinctive beings who all have innate wiring for deep connection to our inner knowing. Yet, there are many people who feel unsure and untrusting of their intuitive abilities. Somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten how to tap in, place trust back in ourselves, and listen to the signals of our multi-dimensional being. The good news is we have the ability to restore harmony.

How?

We must first set our brains up on the shelf for a moment, lean into trust, look to our senses, listen to our feelings and with intentionality seek the guidance that comes from within. There are many different ways you can approach this process, and what works for one may not work for another.

The following are practices to use in strengthening your relationship to intuition:

“Dust off an Intuition Cultivator,” as Chris Maddox of The Wild Woman Project suggests. This is a practice or activity that you find useful and meaningful in your development of intuition. It may be reading an inspiring passage, listening to a spiritual podcast, taking a walk in nature, watching the Full Moon, rising with the sun, sitting quiet the first 20 minutes of each morning in meditation. Feel into this. Start with something that feels like it could be the right fit for you, apply it for a week, and notice the changes.

Feel into your body. Intuition is largely feeling into your body. Your energetic, emotional and physical body will send signals of the information you must know. Have you ever met someone and just instantly felt connected to them? You “got a good vibe”? Alternatively, there may have been many situations and people in life where you just “got a bad feeling.” This is your intuitive body speaking to you. It’s happening to us all day, all the time. We just have to tune in, turn our inner dial up, and listen more closely, while at the same time dropping out of Rational Mind. It takes practice. Try tuning in this week and notice when you feel shifts in your body as you go about your day, interact with different people, and during your decision making process. Which segues into the next practice of…

Expansive vs. Contracted Inner Meter, another practice suggested by Chris Maddox, is a powerful aid in the intuitive decision-making process. Centering yourself and dropping your awareness into your inner being, ask an either-or question. For example, “Should I go to the next New Moon Woman’s Circle?” Feel into option 1: ex, “Yes, I will go.” Really feel it in your body, imagine it, see it, think it. Check into your inner state, noticing if you are feeling expansive or contracted. Your energetic and emotional body will indicate which state you’re experiencing. Now, let it go, recenter, clear the state, return back to neutral, perhaps take a few deep breaths. Now, feel into option 2: ex, “I will not go.” Envision it, see it, think it, really feel into it, and notice if you are experiencing expansion or contraction. This will give you a good indication to your intuitive guidance. Our bodies communicate to us clearly and specifically.

Get in Nature. Malidoma Patrice Somé, a West African spiritual teacher illustrates so beautifully, “Nature is the silent witness of intuition.” There is something so profound that happens when we sit silently in nature, an experience to which language can often never capture.

InnSaei: The Power of Intuition is an intelligently crafted documentary currently streaming on Netflix. It was recommended to me and now I pass on that recommendation to you. See the trailer here Or want cliff notes? Here is a great blog post which captures the essence quite conclusively.

A simple, self-reflective, inner inquiry, again inspired by Chris Maddox. I recommend doing this first thing in the morning, in the quiet, before anyone in the house wakes up. Centering into your stillness, drop this question into meditation: “How does my intuition make itself known to me?” Notice the subtleties in your energetic body, what comes up in the emotional body, anything that surfaces physically. Listen closely and trust in what emerges.

Consistency is key. To get back in touch with intuition, we need to strengthen the muscle. The stronger our practice becomes, the greater the impact of intuitive guidance we’ll feel in our day to day life.

And I leave you with this quote by Florence Scovel Shinn, a spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer, “Intuition is a spiritual faculty that does not explain, but simply points the way.”

Liked this post? I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

In what ways does intuition speak to you? How can you strengthen your relationship to intuition?

Seeking more support in cultivating a healthier, happier relationship to YOU? Contact me today to schedule an exploratory 1-1.